tukafan21

Ickey might already be our best OL, and we've started 16 players at LT in the last 8 seasons since Gross retired. Unless he significantly struggles at LT in camp and just can't be trusted out there, he's our starting LT week 1 without question. if Brady can't play at LG next to someone like Ickey, then he's not going to succeed at LT either. And if he does succeed at LT, you say Ickey is only meant to play Guard for 1 year, then what happens next year? Do you then swap them? and if so, then what was the point in playing Brady at LT this year? Ickey is our starting LT, Brady is option A at LG, but if he can't cut it, you do anything other than move Ickey inside unless he's also struggling at LT.

It's not a matter of Sam blocking Matt's development, it's about us finding out if Matt can be our QB of the future, and we're not going to find that out if he's on the bench, we will only find that out by seeing him in live games. Now if you think Darnold still has a chance at being a top end QB, that's a different story, but I'm long past thinking that's a possibility, he has all the arm talent in the world, but he just flat out doesn't have the ability to process things mentally fast enough to be an elite NFL QB. I like him, he seems like a good kid, I just don't think he's someone you're going to compete or SB's with. Again, in the end, I want to go into the 2023 draft knowing if we have our franchise QB on the roster already or not, and I don't think we find that out with Corral not starting until the final month of the season. That's really all it comes down to for me

No, Ickey was the 6th pick in the draft, you don't take an OL with the 6th pick and play him at Guard while starting your 3rd rounder the previous year at LT just because you're not sure if the 3rd rounder is good enough to play Guard. You play the stud at LT and if the 3rd rounder can't cut it at Guard, you put someone else in there. Easy decision here unless Ickey comes in and just looks horrible at LT, which seems rather unlikely to happen.

I think we're making the same point, but with different opinions on what "taking the hit" is. I view "taking the hit" as taking the cap hit by dropping Darnold and seeing what Corral has got, others (most) view it as playing it safe with Corral and bring him along slowly. Because in the end, I think we're hurting ourselves if we go into next years draft without knowing if Corral has a decent chance at being our franchise QB. That's honestly the only question I want answered during the 2022 season, and I don't think we know that if Darnold is our day 1 starter.

I don't believe for a second that anyone is offering a 3rd for Love, if they were, GB would have traded him in a heartbeat right now. With Rodgers coming back, Love is as good as done in GB, they aren't going to use the 5th year option on him, which means he only has 2 years left and I can't see Rodgers retiring after this year now. If someone is offering a 3rd, they'd jump all over it, so I doubt anyone is doing that.

As it stands right now, we have our 2022 2nd and 4th rounders, 2023 3rd rounder, and an additional 2022 4th rounder from another team tied up in our QB spot. That's at least 2 starters and 2 more rotational players we could have had with those picks. I'm okay using them on a QB instead, but we NEED to know what we have at that position before the next draft given that, playing Darnold doesn't answer that question for us. I don't think anyone out there believes Darnold can be our long term starter, even with a better line, he doesn't have it between the ears when the ball is snapped. So why keep playing him with all that draft capital tied up in the position and still don't know if we need to use our first rounder (or more?) next year on the position as well.

If that's what we want to do, then don't use next year's 3rd rounder to take a QB this year. THAT is my problem with the Corral trade/pick, but now that we've made our bed, I'd rather lie in it and see if we get a good nights sleep rather than go sleep on the couch to keep the freshly made bed neat and clean.

If we have him in the building all year, likely play him a bit, and then decide we need to re-draft a QB, nobody out there is giving up close to a 4th for him, we'd be lucky to get a 6th round comp pick sent our way for him at that point, more than likely a 7th rounder or a backup/ST player for him. Point blank, in the end, I'm also just angry that we gave up another future top 75 pick for someone we might not know what we have in them going into next year's draft, and tossing him into the fire and seeing what he's got, to me, is the way to rectify that a little bit. You give up future picks when you have a good team and know you're not giving up a top 10 pick in that round, particularly when it comes to the first 3 rounds as that's where you can potentially draft day 1 starters. That 3rd rounder would have been solid ammo to add into a trade next year if we need to move up for a QB, instead we'd yet again be needing to dip into future drafts if needed. We have too many holes on this team to keep sending away future picks for players we have no idea if they can be "the guy" yet. That's what teams with contending rosters do to fill in the final gaps they have to be able to make a SB run, not teams who are picking in the top 10 for 3 straight years.

But that's not devoting 18 million to it, it would be 3-4 million for the backup to replace Darnold. That 18 million is gone no matter what choice we have... it then comes down to is it worth an additional 3-4 million to get a better mentor for Carrol, I strongly think it is.

If we're in the position to draft them, that means we gave up about the 65th pick in the draft next year for Corral, that absolutely is a decent investment in him. And in reality, it would mean we gave up this year's 2nd and 4th, next year's 3rd, and next year's 1st (and possibly more if we needed to trade up) to solve the QB position. I'm all about solving the position, but without all the other picks, we're not able to properly build around them. In the end what it comes down to for me is that we're not winning the SB this year, we'll be lucky to just contend for the playoffs under the best case scenario. So I have one and only one goal for this season right now, and that's to find out if Corral can be our QB of the future, until we figure that out, we're in QB purgatory.

I absolutely LOVE Cam, was all about him coming back last year, and up until last night, I was very on board with bringing him back this year. But now that we drafted Corral, I no longer want it. Love the guy, he's a Panther legend and will always be so to me, but we need someone to teach Corral how to handle the mental side of being an NFL QB, particularly off the field... that's not Cam lol.

There is a difference in mentoring the player on the field itself and mentoring the player in the locker room and outside the facility. The coach is there to do it on the field and in the film room, everywhere else, it's on the other players on the roster to show them the ropes. It's just about how you handle yourself everyday as the starting QB of an NFL team, those aren't the things these kids learn from their coaches, it's their teammates.

But the problem is what do you do when Darnold is terrible as expected, we then throw Corral in there in the final month of the season and he shows flashes of potential and flashes of being a bust. We go into next year's draft with a top 10 pick, which also means we're missing about the 70th pick in the draft thanks to the Corral trade. We could easily draft a QB at that spot or use future picks to move up and draft someone if needed. But if we start Corral all year and lose games due to the holes in the roster around him, but see that he has the potential to be our long term starter, we can then use that top 10 pick on other positions of need and fill in those holes around him. My fear is going into the draft with a top 10 pick and no idea what Corral could be, that's the ultimate worst case scenario. I'd probably feel differently if we didn't give up next year's 3rd, if we just had our 3rd rounder instead of trading it away and took him, I'd likely take a different tact here, but giving up the 3rd increases the need to find out who Corral is immediately in my opinion.

On the field this season, yes, minimal benefit. In the locker room and film room, invaluable benefit. Darnold isn't the guy you want teaching your rookie QB how to go about daily life as an NFL QB. If I told you for $3-4 million out of this year's cap, we would know going into next year's draft whether or not Corral could be our QB of the future, you'd take that in a heartbeat. Part of it also is just getting Darnold out of here to give Corral the piece of mind that he's the starter and not worried about making mistakes and getting benched. You bring in someone where it's known to all that they are the backup and Corral is the starter, with Darnold there, he'd always be looking over his shoulder.

He's an extremely smart guy who has been around the league for almost 20 years, mostly as a backup. There isn't a player in the league right now better suited to teach a rookie the ropes about how to go about being a professional QB in the NFL right now.

Why not? We're paying Darnold whether he's on the team or not, starting him doesn't benefit our future as we don't find out what Corral has in that situation. And Darnold is NOT the vet we want mentoring Corral, we want someone who has been around for a while and not someone who constantly sees ghosts out there. The money is a sunk cost at this point, just do what is best for the long term future of this franchise. We aren't making a SB run this year no matter what... so don't worry about the smart financial decisions for this year alone, worry about the future of the QB position.

I'll start this by saying I doubt this happens, but if I was Tepper, I'd demand it and immediately fire Rhule/Fitterer if they refuse, but it really should be the ONLY way this season plays out if they're smart. I totally understand that Corral likely needs time to sit and learn, but with the likely elite QB talent in the top of the draft next year, plus trading away our 3rd next year, we HAVE to find out this year if Corral has a chance to be our long term solution or not, we have to go into next year's draft knowing if we have our franchise QB, not still wondering. It's basically the same thing as with Brady last year except they screwed that one up and didn't play him at LT until the very end of the season and thus had no idea if we needed to draft a new LT this year or not. Sign a smart, savvy vet who is okay being his backup and knows his job is to teach Corral how to be a QB in this league, how to go about preparation the right way, the whole thing (Fitzmagic anyone?). Best case scenario, he looks great and shows enough flashes that he can be a legit QB in this league and if we still end up with a good draft pick, we can use it elsewhere and/or trade back with a team going for a QB to get some future early round picks out of it. Worst case scenario, we absolutely suck, Corral shows us he's not the answer, we end up with a top 5 pick and get our new QB in the draft next year. The problem is I'm not sure Rhule will ever get on board with it knowing he's coaching for his job this year, but it really is the way we should go, whether he's ready or not, we NEED to see what this kid has right away, and not in mop up duty at the end of the season with half our usual starters on the IR.

Doesn't really matter that much at this point, nothing until the 5th round, we're taking guys who at best will contribute on special teams and be a decent backup as a positional player.

Trying to keep Darnold from holding out to force a trade? LOL We can't get anyone to take Darnold right now to save our lives, NOBODY is going to want him if he holds out when his NFL life is already teetering in the balance.

Ugh I hope that look was about throwing Darnold under the bus and not about Corral already, because that was not a "good" look by any means.

Almost every starting QB in the league right now was a first rounder. Brady, Wilson, Prescott, Cousins, Hurts are the only decent starting QBs that weren't first rounders, and then only a couple after them are starters at all.

highly unlikely any team trading for Baker signs him to an extension before the season, if any team liked him that much, he'd already have been traded.

As long as we're not paying his current contract and not giving up anything better than a future 5th rounder, then I'm 100% on board with it. He's a significant upgrade over Darnold, give him a healthy CMC, a completely new OL, and DJ coming into his prime, I think he can put us into playoff contention this year. Now if we give up anything more than a future 5th and/or pay anything above the vet minimum of that contract, then I'm strongly against it.

The problem is that I'm not okay with giving up 2023 draft picks to get back into the draft today. Trade Robby? 100% on board with it, but I don't think anyone is giving us a 3rd round pick today in exchange for Robby, not a chance. If anything, maybe give up a 2024 pick 3rd rounder if it can get us into the 3rd round today, but I doubt anyone is doing that either. If we trade back into today, odds are we'll have to give up something that is too much for us to give up seeing as we are more than likely to have a decent draft slot next season as of right now (I think Baker could put us middle of the pack, but even then, I'd rather have the middle of the round picks than a 3rd rounder this year).

The fact that nobody traded back into the first round to take Willis and get the 5th year option with him is a MAJOR red flag to me. Especially for someone like him who is known to be a developmental prospect, that 5th year becomes huge if he doesn't play his first year or two. So when there seemed to be a trade every other pick towards the end of the first round, and none of them were for someone to jump back into the first to grab him, says a lot about what the teams actually think about him compared to the media "experts" out there.